The magazine of The Finnish Association of
Architects (SAFA) is partially on the web.

I also found the
exhibition
Finland Builds 9.
"Finnish Architecture 1992-1997 is the prime
national exhibit for the best recent architecture
and building. This exhibition covers architecture of the
last five years, and is the ninth in
succession..."

"The Alvar Aalto Museum specialises in architecture.
It preserves,
researches and maintains a permanent display of material
related to
Aalto's work as an architect and designer. It also
oversees building
conservation, arranges
exhibitions and distributes information, principally on
topics related to
Aalto."

"The Museum has large collections of
drawings and photographs of Finnish Architecture,
and an extensive architectural Library. The Museum
arranges exhibitions in its own spaces, elsewhere in
Finland and abroad. It publishes architectural books, arranges
lectures and provides an information service. The Museum
participates in international collaborative
projects in its field."

I've linked you to the Finnish pages - The English ones have been
under construction for a few years now.

Includes a pictorial tour of the new embassy
building.
..."The embassy building has rapidly established itself
as the newest
landmark of Washington DC, as well as a showcase of the
essence of Finnish
architecture and design - "the face of Finland to the
United States", to
quote
Ambassador Jukka Valtasaari."...

"...In 1971 the Amos Anderson Art Museum in Helsinki
arranged an
international
comics exhibition, and at the same time the Finnish
Comics Society was
founded. Members of the Society are comics artists,
readers, collectors,
critics and researchers. The Society gives information
about comics to
public as well as to different governmental and cultural
organizations...
The Society publishes a quarterly called Sarjainfo...

The site includes links to the major international comics sites and
maintains a comprehensive list to Finnish sites.

"The Information Centre for Dance in Finland was established in 1980
to produce and provide information about
dance in Finland and to
promote international co-operation in the
sector. The Information
Centre serves both professional and
amateur dancers as well as anyone interested in dance".
This site really does what it promises. A comprehensive and timely list of
links to Finnsh Dance is
included.

This stylish and comprehensive site aims to be the definitive place for
information on Finnish Design on the web.
The collaborators are Design Forum, The University of
Art and Design Helsinki, The Design Museum, and Ornamo - The Finnish
Assosiation of Designers.
(Updating seems to be a bit scetchy.)

The Museum of Art and Design, established in 1873, is a
national specialist museum and internationally recognized
exhibition centre. In addition to its permanent collections, it
arranges several special exhibitions every year. The picture
archives and database contains up-to-date information on
designers and all areas of Finnish design.

"The Faculty of Art and Design at the University of
Lapland was
founded in
1990. It is the youngest of four faculties at Finland's
northernmost
university...
The Faculty offers three degree programs: Art Education,
Media Studies
and Industrial Design."

Finland Festivals is a cooperation
organisation for the principal
cultural events in Finland. Its 62
member festivals attract a
combined annual audience of
more than 1.8 million visitors to
events involving more than 20,000
performing artists.

Helsinki is one of the nine European Cities of Culture in
the year 2000.
One of the projects in this endeavour is
Transplant Heart
which aims to produce collaborative sculpture and
production oriented long-term cultural exchange.

"The main purpose of the department is to support and
develop the
traditions of cinematic expression and the philosophy
of the cinema.
Consequently, the focus in all teaching is on the
importance of
professionalism and the distinctive characteristics of
the cinema as an
art form. The department is also committed to
developing and
strengthening the education, sensitivity and
originality already shown
by the new generation of film makers spawned at
UIAH."

The Media Centre Lume, one of a kind in the world, is a
centre for training, research and production in
the in the field
of audiovisual media. It provides a setting for
excellence in
film and television production, new media and
scenography
all under one roof. Offering state-of-the-art
premises and
equipment for teaching and research, it allows
professionals
and students in the Finnish content production
sector to
focus on the growing challenges of communication,
audiovisual culture and entertainment.
Lume is part of the University of Art and Design Helsinki.

"AVEK was established in 1987 to promote cinema, video
and television
culture. It is responsible for the management of funds
which arise from
authors' copyright entitlements,...
AVEK's support activities cover
the entire field of audiovisual culture, emphasis
being on the production support of short films and
documentaries."

Bonk Business

The Bonk site is now perhaps appropriately a Defunctioned Disinformation
System and no longer available.
"From the humble beginnings of an anchovy fishermans family more
than 150 years ago, Bonk Business Inc. has grown into a multiglobal
industrial enterprise at the forefront of 3rd millennium technologies. The
company is the world leader in fully Defunctioned Machinery, Cosmic
Therapy applications, Advanced Disinformation Systems (ADS), Repacked
consumer products and LBH
(Localized Black Hole) technology."

An extensive collection of works organized by year
of creation.
... "Stenvall gained a lot of publicity with his duck
paintings which he
started to paint in the late 80's. Besides the nordic
countries, Ducks
have been seen in St. Petersburg, Madrid and London."
...

"Welcome to the Chemistry Art Gallery containing
spectacular visualization
and animations in chemistry done at the Visualization and
Animation
Laboratory at The Centre for Scientific Computing
(CSC) by the Visualization Group." This site also
contains an extensive
list of links to other sientific visualizations.

"
NoVision (also known as Noviisikilta Ry. ) is a community
of
young artists and scientists, formed 1987. We have
been making
alternative artwork and multimedia productions,
including
Artshows, short films (8mm, 16mm, 35mm, TV, video)
etc. ..."
The site includes a Virtual Gallery.

"First there is clean / puhdas / ren - an analogue experience
transferred into the bitworld. It is based on a sculpture-performance
given at Galerie Sculptor, Helsinki, Finland...or you can choose your way
through one of the three dusty stories..."

"Tic Box Interaction for the Verbally Gifted:
These pages
dealing with submission are ready for your texts. By
carefully controlled
selection process will be placed in
The Golden Box of Wonders or in The Honorary
Shitbox."
(The authors of re-evolution are involved in this).

..."The Knot at the Cable is a pilot project in the field
of
equal access to electronic information,
an electronic publishing house for the non-governmental
organisations,
cultural movements and individuals which form the
membership
of Katto-Meny, the cooperative society which maintains
the technical system,
and the Internet node of the Cable Factory"...
From the literature list on their home page you can
access e.g.
Electric verse written by living Finnish and Finland-
Swedish poets,
The Finnish Literture Forum.
This site maintains lists of Finnish Culture sites, too.

Mostly in Finnish.
"Our main goal is to gather all the publishers and
bookstores in Finland
under a same Internet address. Other goals concern
Finnish film industries
and movie theatres and
Finnish business life."

"In digital media, such as hyper- and multimedia, it is
possible to combine the expert knowledge of
ethnographic data collections, visual and graphics
design, and the latest computer technology in
innovative, advanced and sophisticated ways. In the
EtnoLab, this concept is applied to the study of
Folkloristics, Visual Anthropology and the Anthropology
of Art."Have patience and navigate through the Finnish.

"Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931), Finland's national artist,
designed and built his studio and home at Tarvaspää near
Helsinki
in 1911-1913. In the 1961 Tarvaspää was opened to the
public as the Gallen-Kallela Museum."

"The collections of the Gallen-Kallela Museum present the artist's
rich and varied oeuvre"...

"The Gallen-Kallela Museum stages special
exhibitions 3-4 times a year on various
themes."

These special exhibitions are also presented on the web and are
well worth viewing.

"The Alvar Aalto Museum specialises in architecture.
It preserves,
researches and maintains a permanent display of material
related to
Aalto's work as an architect and designer. It also
oversees building
conservation, arranges
exhibitions and distributes information, principally on
topics related to
Aalto."

"You can learn about the Gallery's past and present,
and also visit the
collections at its
three specialist museums - the Museum of Foreign
Art, Sinebrychoff,
the Museum of
Finnish Art, Ateneum, and the Museum of
Contemporary Art - which
cover a period
of eight centuries. Children can take their own
special routes
through the Ateneum. The
page called News and Exhibitions tells you more
what is going on
at the various
museums at the moment."
The site includes lots of pictures of the exhibits.

The Tampere Art Museum is renowned for its active exhibition policy, the
Young Artist of the Year event, wide-ranging publication activities and
Moominvalley, which can be found in the city library. The Tampere Art
Museum presents important themes from art history and phenomena of
contemporary art in both its Finnish and international exhibitions. The
museum's collections consist mainly of domestic art from the early 19th
century onwards.The Tampere Art Museum also serves as the Regional Art
Museum of Pirkanmaa and organizes art
events and services for the area.

The Moomin collection is
based on author-artist Tove
Jansson's original Moomin
production: Moomin books,
illustrations and
three-dimensional tableaux.
The pearl of the collection is the blue,
five-storey miniature Moomin house.

Lusto is a national forest museum and
an exhibition and activity centre. Lusto and
its surroundings form a many-faceted whole,
a story covering the millennia of the
interaction between mankind and the forest.

Arktikum House is a museum and science centre
specialising in the arctic
regions. It acquaints visitors with the fascinating world
of the peoples
living north of the Arctic Circle, as well as their
cultures, surroundings
and history. Arktikum House comprises two independently
operating
institutions: The Arctic Centre and The Provincial Museum
of Lapland. The
Arctic Centre is a separate multidisciplinary division
within the
University of Lapland. Activities at the Centre include
research, an
information service, teaching and exhibitions held at the
science centre.
The Centre collects and supplies information from Finland
and abroad about
arctic cultures, and develops their understanding. The
Provincial Museum
of Lapland records, preserves, researches and exhibits
the nature and
cultural heritage of Lapland, and follows their
development. In addition
to
research work, the Museum's activities include teaching,
publishing and
exhibitions.

"RockData is a WWW-database about Finnish Rock scene
with hundreds of
contacts. RockData includes information about
Finnish record
companies, booking
agents, bands and artists, venues & festivals,
rock-zines,
newspapers, local radio
stations.."
An awesome site for fans of Finnish rock.

"This is the domain for all Finnish music. Choose from the four
sites for different kinds of music. Choose Watt for live music.
Enjoy your ride with RealAudio plug-ins."
Probably the most stylish music pages in Finland.

The administrative field of the Ministry of Education can be said to
relate
to the whole lifespan of an individual and includes the
following: basic
general education, vocational training, higher
education, adult education;
financial support of students; science and research;
the arts and all the
different cultural sectors; copyright; youth affairs;
sports; ecclesiastical
affairs; and Finland's participation in international
cooperation in these
fields.

These
pages contain a wealth of information on Finland.
I've listed them in
the section Organizations, since they are published by the
Ministry for
Foreign Affairs of Finland.
The main page lists picks of the month of which four out of
five where art and culture sites in the month
this was written - culture is high on their agenda.

"The Artists' Association of Finland (AAF) is the
umbrella organisation of Finnish
visual artists. Visual artists are members of
associations of professional
artists, viz. the Finnish Painters' Union, the
Association of Finnish Sculptors,
the Society of Finnish Graphic Artists, the Society of
Artist Photographers and the
Union of Finnish Art Associations, formed by local art
and artists' associations.
AAF and its member organisations have together founded
Kuvasto, the Visual
Artists' Copyright Association..."

"The Henna and Pertti Niemistö Art Foundation ARS FENNICA was established
in 1990. The
Foundation is intended to promote the visual arts and to open up new
avenues for Finnish art in
the international arena."

This site illustrates the works of the nominees for the
Ars Fennica prize.

Christian Artists Finland CAF is a non-profit organisation, aiming to
bring artists and art lovers and friends together, to support their
identity based on christian faith and ethics, and to promote interaction
of
art with cultural and society life.

"This page is your source of information about
FinnFest USA 99, the active Finnish community of
the Northwest and Finland. Bookmark this site so
that you can easily check back for frequent
updates
on FinnFest '99 as it unfolds. In addition, browse
around and youll discover a very comprehensive
site
with the latest information on FinnFest USA '99
and a variety of topics about Finland and Seattle
--
from the worlds longest word to the best place to
find a good latte in Seattle."

This site maintains a comprehensive list of links to
anything concerning Finland.

Finnish Landscape at a glance.
The Picture Gallery is brought to you by Studio Pitkänen
Ky, which is a
prominent picture archive in Finland. Our selection is
based on Matti A.
Pitkänen's photograps (FRPS, EFIAP, APSA, Finnish
Academician) which amount to 40 000 color slides.

The Theatre Academy (TeaK) is the highest art university of its kind in
Finland that offers training in the fields of theatre and dance. Graduates
of the Academy are either versatile visionary theatre
professionals, qualified teachers or leading researchers in the fields of
theatre or dance.

..."The Knot at the Cable" is a pilot project in the
field of
equal access to electronic information,
an electronic publishing house for the non-governmental
organisations,
cultural movements and individuals which form the
membership
of Katto-Meny, the cooperative society which maintains
the technical system,
and the Internet node of the Cable Factory"...
electric verse written by living Finnish and Finland-
Swedish poets
This site maintains lists of Finnish Culture sites,
too.

"M U U is an artist run organisation based in
Helsinki, Finland. Its
250 members work in the fields of media arts,
performance,
installation, environmental art, conceptual art,
critical theory,
and in various interdisclipinary
projects."